Thread: what tip sizes??

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Hi. i am looking at a couple of spray guns. They are a off brand pair of guns. i am on a pretty tight buget, so if I can cut a few corners.. I checked into having the 37 painted this next Summer. The only place in town that will shoot it wants $450. I have to supply everything. I went to school for auto body repair in 1971. I used one of those guns with the cup on the bottom. I remember painting back then, but can't remember how much thinner and such. I am looking at those HVLP guns. One of the guns has a 1.4mm tip for top coats, a 1.8mm tip for primers, and a 1.0 tip for detail. They are from Harbor Freight Tool. On sale for just under $50.00. I plan to paint the 37 a blue that I once had on a 1970 Dodge Challenger I had way back when.. I will have to look up the name of it again though.. It is a metalic.. Thanks.. Al

I sprayed with a HF gun a bit, and that was apparently the source of my fisheye problems. While it is tempting, in spray guns you get what you pay for, and the Chinese HF guns are not a good value for trying to get a good job, IMO. Look at the guns from Eastwood, Summit, or a Finex brand as good mid range gun.

Thanks.. I will take a look.. Al

Al, read this Popular Hot Rodding tech article about painting, they recommended this paint gun combo from Summit. Please take Roger's advice, cheap paint guns are cheap for a reason.

Mike

just painted a pickup with them guns. dont do it. them guns aint no good.

I am in the process of painting my ride now, I bought a DeVilbiss spray gun set from Eastwood off EBAY paid around 180 shipped to for three, primer gun, touch gun,fine finish gun. They are awesome for the price. I you can purchase there fine finsih gun for around 100 I think. Very pleased with them. Also I have bben on a budjet too, between chrome shop and the blower motor has not left to much cash for paint. I am useing TCPGLOBAL Kustom Shop line. Very pleased with there base coat clear coat paint kit. Around $217 for clear and paint. Take a look at my thread. I am not perfect but after color sanding and buffing will be fine. Very pleased with all the products.

I've used a lot of the HF guns, both regular size and detail size, for painting stuff like frames and suspension parts. They worked well for me on those pieces. But we did buy a better gun for shooting the bodies on my 27 and Dan's 30, and it did make quite a bit of difference.

Not all of us can afford, or need, the $ $ 500-$ 1000 Sata's and similar guns, so something in the under $ 200 range will usually do well for us. I personally like the gravity feed guns better than the siphon versions.........much easier to use and clean up when done. The one we bought came with a 1.3, 1.5, and 1.8 tip. We fouind the 1.5 was good for what we were spraying.

Just as important as the gun is a good filtration system to trap contaminates and moisture. It's amazing how much water is produced by your compressor when it is running while spraying. Another thing is that we home painters can shoot a little more clear to give us the ability to wet sand and buff the finish to remove a lot of the trash that will find it's way into our paint.

Don

This is a subject that can get emotional real quick!!!

There are some that love the HF Purple 43460 and others that hate them - including me. They are air hogs to get to work right(if ever). Some will work just ok at 30-40 psig to atomize the paint, mine needed 50+. I originally purchased it to spray epoxy primer - it did spray primer on the car - as well as splatter almost everything else in my shop gray. I ended up using a DeVillbiss Finishline 3 for my primers. You can get 4 or 5 different tips and they will do a credible job. I also tried a Sharpe Finex and that worked well, but it performed at the same level as the Devil so another member here now has that gun.

For the final paint on my car, I was able to purchase an Iwata LPH400 at a very reasonable price - and after using that, you'll never go back to the $29.95 clunkers. But, unfortunately, they are now in the same price range as the SATA's

There is a well thought of HVLP low end gun - the Astro at about $70.

Paint (and even the undercoats) is just too dam' expensive to spray with a junk gun!!!!!!

That Finishline gun is the one we ended up using and were very impressed with it. We aren't pro painters by any stretch of the imagination, so putting a top end gun in our hands would be like putting a Stradivarious violin in the hands of an 8 year old novice musician. But the Finishline laid on a nice pattern and seemed to atomize the paint very well.

However, for my suspension and frame stuff I will probably still use the HF only because I have learned to work with them, and toss them occasionally as they are so cheap to buy.

Don

I am going to try ebay, and the Pawn America in town. I just got a Eastwood catalog in the mail today. I was thinking of going with that TCP paint, because I liked how you can buy the whole kit insted of guessing which clear coat, or which activator to use. Can someone tell me how the base coat/clear coats are?? Thanks.. Al

Originally Posted by slantback37

I am going to try ebay, and the Pawn America in town. I just got a Eastwood catalog in the mail today. I was thinking of going with that TCP paint, because I liked how you can buy the whole kit insted of guessing which clear coat, or which activator to use. Can someone tell me how the base coat/clear coats are?? Thanks.. Al

Look around your area and see if you can find a good, independent paint supplier - the guy who is not tied to PPG or another big name brand. My local guy carries Matrix, which uses the exact PPG color chemistry, but is tons cheaper. You're looking for the guy who sells paint, but also paints under his own name as a sideline. If you find that shop you will get the best value on your paint, supplies, and the best advice on how to do it yourself.

I have been using the finishline guns and they work pretty good. They are a lot better than the cheapies.

Originally Posted by slantback37

I am going to try ebay, and the Pawn America in town. I just got a Eastwood catalog in the mail today. I was thinking of going with that TCP paint, because I liked how you can buy the whole kit insted of guessing which clear coat, or which activator to use. Can someone tell me how the base coat/clear coats are?? Thanks.. Al

Stay away from used spray gun in a pawn shop. So far I like there stuff, here is another car the guy was pleased with from another forum. He also used the Restoration shop paint from TCPGLOBAL. Base coat clear coat too system.If your car is going to be in the weather alot and not garage kept I would go with a better paint materials. As to all paint, the higher priced stuff usally has better UV protection and better quality. Cheap stuff is fine as long as it it garage kept.

I haven't looked at the TCP Global site lately, but my recollection is that they had 2-3 different lines of paint ranging from low end to DuPont/PPG quality. I really like purchasing my BC from the local guy though. He will use a formula and probably paste it on the container so when you don't have enough, he can duplicate it easily. You may pay a bit more, but it can be hell to pay if you are painting your car and need 'one more quart - NOW, not in a week from NOW'. If you have to add another coat several days/weeks later, you need to break the surface of last weeks paint with 600 sandpaper so the fresh will adhere and it might not match well.

As far as using clears, they are relatively inexpensive in comparison to the base coat color. Then the BC colors range from anything that has red pigments which is extremely expensive, pearls which are even more so to the "standard" colors like the different shades of white and the grays to black.

The brand of clear which I have found to be very user friendly is the SPI Universal clear. While it isn't sold everywhere, you can call the factory and order (and probably even talk to the owner, Barry). With shipping included it is way less expensive then the 'biggies' and probably about the same as the TCP Global.

Painting a car these days is not for the faint of heart or weak of wallet. It takes a lot of prep time and tools which are costly. Then of course you need some sort of dust and bug free area, etc, etc. Then, holding a spray gun and aiming at the car - you need to develop a technique which can get expensive as well (wasted paint, time)

So, in what you are saying.. I should do all of the prep work, and have a shop shoot it. With the cheapy gun I should be able to shoot primer, and a sealer don't you think?? The shop would have all of the good guns. I see your point also about buying paint in town. I remember when I had the Honda painted. It was Milano red. $94 a quart. I figure blue wouldn't cost as much. The car is kept mostly in the garage. My neighborhood isn't the best in town. It was before they built low income town homes across the street from my house..
I would also be able to look at paint chips there insted of guessing from the computer. I do know Barry. I have talked to him before. Thanks.. Al